GENETIC-ENGINEERING IN PEA CROP IMPROVEMENT

Genetic engineering can be used to complement traditional breeding programmes in those plant species where suitable tissue culture and transformation methods allowing regeneration of fertile transgenic plants have been developed. Pea, an important legume crop, was earlier considered to be recalcitrant to genetic engineering. Recent advances in tissue culture methods have, however, made it possible to obtain fertile transgenic pea plants. This paper summarizes the results obtained in developing transformation methods for pea.